Berthe
January 22, 1862– April 1862
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 20.1 × 23.3 cm (7 15/16 × 9 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.588.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Berthe**, a captivating albumen silver print by pioneering French photographer André-Adol-Eugène Disdéri, dates from January to April 1862.ured as a glass negative and printed in the delicate tones characteristic of albumen processes, this 20.1 × 23.3 cm portrait exemplifies the intimate portraiture that defined mid-19th-century photography Disdéri, renowned for inventing the carte de visite format 1854—a small, affordable calling-card-sized photo that sparked a portraiture craze across Europe—elevated everyday subjects like "Berthe" into elegant studies of poise and presence. The albumen s...
About the Artist
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri · 1819–1889
**André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri** (1819–1889) was a pioneering French photographer whose innovations transformed portraiture into a mass medium during the Second Empire. Born on March 28, 1819, in Paris, Disdéri pursued diverse careers in commerce, acting, and politics early on, while studying art amid personal hardships following his father's death, which compelled him to support his mother, sibli...